August 10, 2025

Preacher: Rev. Dr. Boon Lin Ngeo

Please use this Order of Service to easily follow the service online.

CLICK HERE FOR HYMNS (or scroll to the bottom)

Prelude:    Richard Harper

Chalice Lighting:    

We light our chalice, symbol of our free Unitarian faith

Sign of the spark of life in all living beings

Fire of commitment to love and justice

As the chalice cup embraces the flame

May we hold one another in loving community

Sharing our gratitude, our pain and our hopes for our world

For we are co-weavers of the story of the universe

A web of intimate connections and infinite possibilities

Opening Hymn:     Be Thou My Vision  SLT  20             

Welcome & Announcements

Call to Worship:  

We worship the God who inhabits our world and indwells our lives.

We need not look up to find God, we need only to look around:

within ourselves, beyond ourselves,

into the eyes of another.

Prayer of Invocation:   

First Sacred Reading:   Matthew 13:13,  24-30

¹³ The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’

 ²⁴ He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field, ²⁵ but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away. ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. ²⁷ And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ ²⁸ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹ But he replied, ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. ³⁰ Let both of them grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”

Passing of the Peace 

Sharing of Our Joys & Concerns

Prayers of the People/Pastoral Prayer

Offering & Doxology:    We Give You But Your Own – NCH 785 

We give you but your own, what e'er the gift may be; All that we have is yours alone, we give it gratefully

Second Sacred Reading:   Dhammapada - Sayings of the Buddha 

  “A victor only breeds hatred, while a defeated man lives in misery, but a man at peace within lives happily, abandoning up ideas of victory and defeat. There is no fire like desire. There is no weakness like anger. There is no suffering like the khandhas. There is no happiness greater than peace.”

Hymn of Reflection:        Love Will Guide Us         SLT  131       

Sermon:         To Be is To Inter-Be  

Closing Hymn:  I’m On My Way         SLT 116

Benediction:                           Rev. Dr. Boon Lin Ngeo

Postlude:                                Richard Harper

All Souls Bethlehem Church

An Open and Affirming Congregation

Pastor: Rev. Dr. Boon Lin Ngeo

Ministers: All Members of ASBC

Minister Emeritus: Rev. Bill Nye 

First Time Visitor?  

Please sign our red Guest Book (located near the entrance)

and be our guest at the gathering following the service!

Interested in “Official” Church Membership?  

Please speak with Council President Raquel Irizarry about our next New Member gathering!  

An All-inclusive, Welcoming Community of Faith

born from the traditions of the:

Disciples of Christ - www.Disciples.org

United Church of Christ - www.UCC.org

Unitarian Universalist Association - www.UUA.org 

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